With Windows 10 (so far) on schedule, IT leaders will increasingly be drawn into discussions about when their organizations will move to this new and highly anticipated operating system. We’ve already blogged about the changes that the OS will bring, and the reactions we are hearing from our customers are certainly mixed.

For some, Windows 10 is a source of excitement and an opportunity for IT to better support mobility and agility in their organizations. In many cases, they never seriously explored Windows 8, but plan to leap directly into Windows 10 and believe their workers will want them to do so quickly.

On the other hand, we have many customers who aren’t planning to take on what promises to be the last major Windows migration any time soon – and they feel time is still on their side with Windows 7 support continuing until 2020.

At RES, we recognize the importance of supporting our customers on their journeys to Windows 10, whether their strategy is to tackle the upgrade head-on quickly, or pace their move to the new OS over the next several years. Our longstanding partnership with Microsoft means that we are committed to helping our joint customers get the most out of Windows 10, and we’ve already started that process.

Today for Windows 10

In April 2015, in RES Workspace Manager 2014 SR3, we added experimental support for Windows 10. We have done initial internal testing and analysis, and customers can start testing Windows 10 in a RES Workspace Manager environment in their own organizations. In addition, we’ve opened up the ability for everyone, existing customers or evaluators, to create a support ticket if an issue is encountered in Windows 10.

Up Next for Windows 10

The first service release of RES ONE Workspace 2015 will mark official support for Windows 10. Our top priority is making sure we fully support customers using Windows 10 at a feature parity level with Windows 7 and Windows 8. This means we will ensure that all RES ONE Workspace functionality for previous versions of Windows will also work in Windows 10. Customer feedback from our experimental support will be critical in helping us provide seamless support for the new OS. Customers can expect the first service release of RES ONE Workspace 2015 to be available in the fall.

RES and the Future of Windows 10

After the first service release of RES ONE Workspace 2015, we will focus on identifying areas in Windows 10 where we can offer more value for our joint customers. We’re already working on some great possibilities and will closely monitor trends in Windows 10 adoption for even more compelling value-add. Most importantly, we would love to hear from you as your organization plans its Windows 10 strategy. What do you see as value-add Windows 10 capabilities that we can help you further make the most-of through RES ONE Workspace?

Call for Windows 10 Enthusiasts

As we partner together on this transition to Windows 10, we can’t express enough how critical customer feedback and input will be moving forward. If anyone is interested in playing a role in our ongoing enhancement of support for Windows 10, we’d love your help. A pre-release version of RES ONE Workspace SR1 with the official Windows 10 (feature parity) support for customer testing, will be available in early fall. Check blog.ressoftware.com for more updates on pre-release availability and how you can provide feedback.

More than a Migration

Making the move to Windows 10 will be about much more than the migration itself: it’s a milestone in the ongoing development of the digital workspace. And because Windows 10 promises to offer more flexibility across devices and more consumer-like capabilities, IT has great new opportunities to fulfill their future visions for a more empowered, digitally-enabled workforce. Whether you choose to take advantage of this opportunity sooner or later, RES is excited to be on the journey with you.